A 19-year-old Malawian school dropout, Ernest Andrew, has brought free electricity to his village, using a self-made air-powered generator, which bypasses the use of fuel, oil or batteries.
When Ernest Andrew dropped out of school in 2018 due to a lack of fees, he started collecting scrap materials that he slowly built into his Air-generator invention, which is hinged on the use of the untapped power of air.
Says Ernest: “The air fills the bottle where there are wires that produce an electromagnetic field. That magnetic field generates electricity which is transmitted through the cables and the poles to the houses. This electricity, for now, is enough just for lighting.”
He adds that his generator currently produces 1,000 volts of electricity, and he has so far connected nine homes, while planning to power up the community. The Malawi government has requested that the teenager supplies free electricity to the nearby school.
The villagers also enjoy the free power, which they use to charge phones and run low current-consuming businesses such as barber shops.